Hearthstone is the most fun card game I've played since MTG

So I finally got around to playing Hearthstone. I really dig it a lot. Hearthstone is the most fun card game I've played since Magic the Gathering and Yugioh. It takes the best of both of those games and puts things into a simplistic game-style while still being complex with strategies and deck building. Its a very well made free to play game with only slight pay to win aspects. Sure the cards I have right now aren't that great and it makes playing against other players super difficult but at the same time its made me stronger and forced me to learn all the different strategies the game has to offer faster on the fly. It's great!

I think the thing I like the most about Hearthstone is that its a chill card game based on Warcraft. I can play the game while drinking a soda, talking with my friends, hanging out with multiple people while sitting on the couch, the variety is unlimited. You don't even need a mouse or keyboard you could just use a laptop touch-pad. In addition, I believe the game can also be played on a tablet and smartphone. I haven't played a game this chill in a long time.

There's a lot of interesting mechanics. There's these things called secrets that don't activate until your opponent does something to you or your minions. There's taunt which forces the enemy player to attack your taunt creature before he can attack your life points directly (Yugioh anyone). There's things like charge where creatures can attack the turn they come out (basically haste from Magic the Gathering). I'm still learning everything that can be done in the game but I think I'm doing a great job with the cards that I have now.

My favorite hangout is the Arena where I can quickly forge a deck from random cards. However, I'm also still playing all the classes in Quick Play against other players to unlock all the cards for all the classes. It's pretty difficult but I've been able to get a surprising amount of wins just using the stock premade decks. I've also made my own custom rogue deck too. Its not that great but it will become better as I get more packs.

You can actually unlock packs just by doing daily quests in game. Most of them will be like Win 3 games, Play this many of this certain classes cards, etc. You can get gold and dust too. Gold can be used to play in the Arena and dust is used for crafting. I haven't quite figured out how crafting works in the game but I'll definitely figure it out soon.

The sound effects and visuals for the game are pretty top tier. It looks so clean and sounds so good. The music is nonchalant which is perfect. The class system with the cards is pretty fun and unique as well. I don't think I've ever been this happy with a free to play game like ever. It's seriously an amazing game with so much technical aspects and competitive aspects too. I'm glad I started playing just before the next expansion.

Apparently in the next expansion every class will be able to turn into death knights. I'm definitely going to buy the expansion upon release and try the death knight stuff out. I've become involved in the game, even looking at articles on pcgamer about the game and the new cards that are coming out.

Pretty excited to be playing it. I'm about to play right now. Another great thing about the game is that it doesn't make my laptop cry. If you want to play a great game that helps you relax while is still competitive then play this game. You won't regret it.

Naisu! 

Games I wish I could play (if I had a hyperbolic time chamber)

So I've been reading a lot about games and posting a lot of blog posts. I figured I'd do a post about games I wish I could play if I had more time. Or money. Most of these I'll never play because games are expensive and money is hard to come by these days. Time is also hard to find these days too. Let's start this thing.

So the first game I would love to play is Final Fantasy A Realm Reborn and its expansion Stormblood. I've heard so many great things about this game and I've been watching a lot of game play on YouTube ever since I read reviews about how great it was. Apparently A Realm Reborn is pretty grindy (takes a long time to hit max level) but once you do the expansion (Stormblood) is what makes the entire game great. What I like about it is the art style. It's very colourful and there's tons of spells, combos, and abilities going on. Kind of like World of Warcraft (which I've been playing) but I think FF14 has more of a combo button activation feel. Much more so than WoW. But yeah my favorite thing about the game is the fact that its a Final Fantasy game and it looks so fresh, bright, and colourful. I would love to try this game out but buying A Realm Reborn, Stormblood, and paying for the subscription fee ($14.99/month) just isn't within my earnings. Would love to try like a trial or something. Maybe that's a thing?

Next, I would really like to try out PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG). Its a massively multiplayer online battle royal game where you spawn in a server and immediately try to run around, survive, and kill enemy players. The idea of the game is pvp (with 100 players duking it out) with players going in by themselves or in small teams. The last player and/or teams alive wins. It's a modern era game with guns and stuff. Its currently the most popular game on Steam and its only in early access. Once the game is fully developed and launched it will become even better, and possibly even more popular. I've never played a game like this but I have been interested.

Next up is Epic Games' Fornite. The game launches later this month and its a Minecrafty tower defense game where you build forts and hold off waves of zombies with guns and such. You build forts, often at night and you try to survive. Anyone can see that its got a Left 4 Dead vibe with four hero characters surviving waves of zombies but I think this game is going to be much different than Left 4 Dead because it has a lot of other mechanics.

"It’s part Minecraft, in that you bust up trees and rocks with a pickaxe to build big fortresses out of big snappy pieces, and part tower defense in that zombies creatures make a beeline towards said base with the singular goal of destroying your creations. It’s also a third-person shooter with class-based co-op synergies and tons of loot—traps, weapons, heroes, and even NPC support characters. Fortnite is a lot of things. It’s too many things, really." (PC Gamer)

I'm interested in it if I ever had the chance. But with all the work I'm going to be doing its probably not going to happen unless some of my friends start playing it. It does sound interesting. Muy!

Then there's Destiny 2.  Anyone that knows anything about me will tell you that I'm a Blizzard fan. I am pretty excited about Destiny 2 coming out on the pc but I don't think I have the time for an mmo like that because I'm currently playing WoW. I actually played the original Destiny on Xbox 360 for a little while but I became bored because at the time the 360 was a dying console and was easily replaced by the Xbox One Destiny scene. I did think it was a great game. I just didn't stick with it because I don't like console games unless they're fighting games or single player rpgs (smash bros, mvc2, xenoblade, final fantasy vii, etc). I think Destiny 2 will be even bigger than the first one. Mainly because it will be on pc. Pc gamers are always looking for more shooters to play so an mmo fps will be like heaven to them.

Lastly, to keep this post short (because I could go all night) I'm gonna go ahead and say Hearthstone. I've been reading about the game here and there and its a pretty hip and happening game in the overall gaming community. I heard in the next expansion Blizzard's gonna make it so that every class in the game can turn into death knights. I'm a huge death knight fan (mained worgen death knight in WoW back in Cataclysm) so this is exciting news and it might just be the tipping point for me to actually start playing.

That's gonna do it for the games I wish I could play if I had more time. Time is of the essence. The thing is that other things need to get done (guitar playing, hang outs with friends, work) and there's only so much time in the day. Making effective use of my time is my primary directive at all times before work during the day. I even wake up earlier than I used to back in 2014, 2015, and 2016 because I realized I wouldn't get everything I needed done if I was sleeping in all the time. Sleep is good but getting things done is even better. 

 If only I had a hyperbolic time chamber!

Blizzard Just Keeps Hooking Me Into Their Games

So the Overwatch Anniversary is going on and I just can't get enough. There literally aren't enough hours in the day to grind level ups and earn loot boxes (levels ups earn you free loot boxes). I finally managed to reach level 300 and in my recently earned loot box I got the Genji dance emote. Nice! In addition to Overwatch I've been spending time playing Heroes of the Storm. After two or three matches of that I usually move on.

I started playing Hearthstone and I'm in that stage where the game is super new to me and I don't get how all the chain combos work. However, I'm also at the stage where I might become a competitive player. The game is fun, fast, simple, and reminds me of Magic the Gathering (the best part of the game imo). I'm not sure if I want to only play it casually or if I'm going to try to become good and play ranked.

If those games weren't enough to take up my free time I recently saw an article on (Kotakuhttp://kotaku.com/its-2017-and-modders-are-still-making-diablo-ii-better-1795609085)  that explains how modders are making Diablo 2 a better game. I used to love Diablo 2 as a middle schooler so when I read the article I was impressed and excited. Sure enough, I dug through my pc gaming boxes and dug out my Diablo 2 discs. I downloaded it and got the mod and tomorrow I'm going to start my first Bowazon (bow/archery amazonian) character in D2 using this awesome mod that adds all this cool stuff and increases the max level cap to 125 (formerly 99).

What I'm getting at is that Blizzard just sucks you into their games. The artwork, game play, lore, story, and patches keep the games exciting and interesting for years to come. Who would think that I would be playing Diablo 2 again when I haven't played it probably since the early 2000's? Its just that great of a game, that's why. Blizzard makes great games. The games create experiences within an entertaining simulated world that makes you want to keep playing. These are the things that science fiction writers would have dreamed of in the middle ages.

I'm still playing a lot of Team Fortress lately. I've been trying to learn how to play the spy class. I've gotten really good at sniping people with the revolver. Sometimes when I can't get in for backstabs I just chill with the team and snipe. I feel like McCree from Overwatch with that revolver. Its definitely the hardest class to play because players are really good and they know how to counter spy super easily. I've been dying a lot. But I keep respawning and going for those backstabs.

China passes loot box law

Loot boxes are a thing in many video games. You level up and you earn boxes or you can buy them for a set fee. Inside you can find many a in-game items. For example, in Overwatch you can get character skins, emotes, sprays, etc. Right now we have no idea what our odds are of getting items we want as its usually always random.

Well, China passed a law that's going to be a game changer. Starting May 2017, developers will have to start disclosing the probabilities of what could be inside the boxes in games like Overwatch, Counter Strike, and Hearthstone. 

Here are the stipulations (as translated by NeoGAF user chillybright):

2.6 ...Online game publishers shall promptly publicly announce information about the name, property, content, quantity, and draw/forge probability of all virtual items and services that can be drawn/forge on the official website or a dedicated draw probability webpage of the game. The information on draw probability shall be true and effective.
2.7 Online game publishers shall publicly announce the random draw results by customers on notable places of official website or in game, and keep record for government inquiry. The record must be kept for more than 90 days. When publishing the random draw results, some measures should be taken place to protect user privacy.

This doesn't mean that we will be able to choose what we get in our loot boxes or see the probabilities because this law is only going to apply in China. However, that doesn't mean that it couldn't reach the Western hemisphere. This could be huge for developers and us gamers who feel like loot boxes are kind of a crap shoot gambler's audition. It is kind of messed up when we put in time into a game and we don't get the items we want out of these loot boxes.

This looks like a good step in the right direction for gamers and loot boxes. Hope it comes to the West.

BlizzCon 2016 predictions

So as you all probably know BlizzCon is tomorrow. My good buddy from work is going. As you can imagine I'm super jelly. Maybe next year I'll go.

Anyways, lets do some speculation because I love doing that. Blizzard does all their big reveals right at the beginning so I will know all the major important news by the time I wake up and check the internet. Let's start with what we know will probably happen for sure.

They're going to announce a new Hearthstone expansion, one of the heist/mobster variety theme. Blizz even did a fake newspaper article from the Gadgetzan Gazette about a vault heist. There might be more news about the game, possibly even a new game mode or something but a new expansion will definitely be revealed.

For World of Warcraft there might be more information about more content for Legion but probably not much more than that. New WoW expansions have been coming out every 2 years so we probably won't hear anything about a new expansion. But perhaps something about patch 7.2.

There probably won't be anything crazy revealed about Starcraft. It's a dying game. A game that I played competitively and seriously for years from 2010 up until about 2013. I'm sad to see the state that its in but let's face it, it's a dead game with not much of a player base despite the tournaments. I don't think anything game changing will be revealed about it but there's a chance they could do another expansion with a new story. But honestly Starcraft is a dying breed. It would be great if Blizzard did what they've done with Starcraft 2 and make Warcraft 4 out of it but I don't think that's going to happen. World of Warcraft and Starcraft 2 are both in lulls as of right now. WoW has momentum from the new expansion but how long will people keep playing until they get bored of the MMO grind? Despite all this I don't think Blizzard is done with Starcraft just yet.

Now for Diablo. We're all expecting a bunch of things. A new Diablo 3 expansion, a Diablo 1 and 2 HD remake, and the possibility reveal of a Diablo 4. The most likely of all of these would be a new Diablo 3 expansion. Diablo 3 is the go to action rpg that everybody loves. The least likely is of course a Diablo 4 reveal but that would be amazing!

Heroes of the Storm has a lot of possibilities for tomorrow as well. Gaming sources have predicted two new maps, three new heroes (one of which is from Overwatch), and possibly a new game mode. A wild guess would be an entire Overwatch theme where they add characters from that game-with Sombra definitely in there. Two years ago they announced Lost Vikings. Last year it was Cho Gall. So this year they'll do some other weird character. Sources say it could be the Hearthstone innkeeper.

And now for Overwatch. We all know we're going to get a Sombra reveal. Good God that's been a long time coming. There will probably be a new map or two revealed as well as the Overwatch Pro League. They're going to step up their esports division for Overwatch. Sombra though will definitely be there. "She'll almost definitely be playable on the show floor before going on the PTR next Tuesday, and then live in the game the week after." (PC Gamer) There will probably be a new cinematic or two as well as some comics. The hope is that they create some kind of interesting new game mode or something. Like a co-op Brawl like Junkenstein's Revenge. That would be sweet.

All these predictions will be answered by the time I wake up tomorrow and check all my gaming sources. I already have an idea of what could happen but I'm hoping that Blizzard does a 180 and pulls a rabbit out of their hat.